KIRPAL SINGH, ARTIST (1923-1990), the creator of Sikh history in colour, was born the son of Bhagat Singh and Har Kaur in a small village Vara Chain Singhvala in Firozpur district of the Punjab on 10 December 1923. He inherited interest in art from his father who

GOBINDGARH FORT, raised in the lime of Maharaja Ranjit Singh on the ruins of an old fortress built at Amritsar by Guj[jar Singh (d. 1788) of the Bharigi clan, was named in honour of Guru Gobind Singh. The Fort took four years, 1805-09, to build. According to

BARAH MAHA or BARAH MASA, in Hindi, is a form of folk poetry in which the emotions and yearnings of the human heart are expressed in terms of the changing moods of Nature over the twelve months of the year. In this form of poetry, the mood of Nature

KOHINUR ("Mountain of Light"), the peerless diamond which today lakes the pride of place among the British crown jewels, once belonged to Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last Sikh sovereign of the Punjab. Duleep Singh was made to surrender it to the British after the annexation of

HARIMANDAR (lit. the House of God; hari = Visnu, or God; mandar = temple, house), Golden Temple to the English speaking world, is the Sikhs` most famous sacred shrine. Also called Sri Darbar Sahib (the Exalted Holy Court), it lies in the heart of the city of

BASANT, a musical measure used in the Guru Granth Sahib. It is a raga of the season of Basant (Skt. vasant) or spring, and during that season can be sung any time of day or night. Otherwise, it is reserved for the night between 9 p.m. and midnight. It

RAM SINGH, a skilled artisan from Chunar Fort near Kashi (Varanasi) in Uttar Pradesh, who was with Guru Gobind Singh at Paonta. According to Sukha Singh, Gurbilds Dasvrn Patshahi, he improvised a gun carved out of a tree trunk. The Guru is said to have used it